Sunday, September 02, 2018

Time's winged chariot rumbles on, and
the ruts of its wheels have marked yet another of my existential
anniversaries (September 1, which was New Year's Day for the
Byzantines and is for myself as well). Along with
what seems an inordinate aggregate of birthdays I've acquired a
concomitant plethora of chattels, and am reminded by my
ever-diminishing mortality that by now it's better to amass memories
than clutter. To that end I've made my personal new year's resolution
to do more and better with what life yet remains, and to consign the
needless knickknackery of ill-considered impulse buys and unappealing
heirlooms to storage bins in preparation for eventual downsizing. But
the tedium of so much emballage was angst-making, until the
recent epiphany of a quick, easy and cheap solution that I'm glad to
share with anyone out there who's burdened with a heap of idle items
best left safely stowed and unseen.

Brown paper lunch bags are readily
available in both large and small sizes at most supermarkets and
discount stores. My simple method is to write a brief description of
the clutter-maker on whichever bag fits best, using a permanent black marker; slide
said tchochke into the bag; fold the top of the
bag and crumple the paper lightly around the gewgaw; finally and with a sigh of relief place the
package in the bin along with its fellows. No swathes of newspaper or
plastic or tape, no risked breakage in the event of fumbled
unwrapping, no labels to stick on or fall off. The paper's sturdy
wrinkles cushion most objects with no need of further protection, but
especially fragile items can be double-bagged for greater safety,
with a bit of tissue paper or bubble wrap if absolutely necessary.